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This Magical Eco-Friendly Material Can Be Used To Fix Almost Anything

FixIts™ is a compostable, hand-moldable plastic stick that softens in 60C water and thus can be used to solve an infinite number of challenges around the home or in creative projects. Fully re-usable, FixIts™ empowers consumers to do DIY on their own terms instead of overspending on single-use or niche equipment. It is the new kitchen drawer essential.

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Chris Lefteri, author of nine books on materials and design eponymous studio, has become well known for bringing about design innovation to global consumer brands through CMF and materials.

Alongside founder Alison Lefteri and co-founder former student Forrest Radford, Chris is launching FixIts™ – a product that can have a positive influence on the environment by focusing on fixing rather than disposing of products.

Chris discovered the material while researching his first book on plastics in 2000. It is a project that is close to the founders’ hearts, and one that is pertinent given our increasing need to deal with the consequences of plastic usage. FixIts™ brings to light a material that has a history of industrial applications to create a new opportunities for and by consumers.

“We need to come at the sustainability issue from a new angle. It’s no longer going to be about using guilt as an emotion to drive consumers to think twice about their carbon footprint, it’s about making recycling fun, desirable and driving an approach that means you want to do good rather than the traditional approach of thinking that you should do good.”

FixIts™ is made from a plastic that softens at a much lower temperature than conventional plastics and exploits the main property of thermoplastics which is that they can be repeatedly heated, cooled and heated again. Not only does this render FixIts™ reusable, but the plastic itself is also compostable in accordance with requirements for EN-14995.

“I have always loved discovering new materials and telling stories about a new way of looking at materials’. We have motto in the studio which we apply to all our consultancy projects based on defining the term ‘new materials’ under three headings: Use materials in new ways, use materials in new places and use materials in new places in new ways. FixIts™ evolved out of using an existing material in a new way. From the outset, the project was about creating a new story that was going to both inspire consumers to want to buy the product and at the same time make them feel they needed the product. I wanted consumers to feel like using it; fixing and making things was going to be fun as well as stopping you from throwing away broken products. I realised very early on that the brand had to be built around a communication story.” – Chris Lefteri

In the 1950’s, plastic was the future, it changed the way the world looked. It filled it with colour and experimental forms; propelling designers to explore with their new found design freedom. Today it’s the total opposite, our inability to act on the environmental warnings of plastic waste is resulting in plastics being material enemy number one; but not all of them have to be.

“What FixIts™ does is give a positive story to plastics by becoming a simple product that sits in the kitchen drawer, pen pot, ruck-sack, etc; that can be used to fix simple solutions that would otherwise result in a broken product being thrown away. Plastics are not going to go away, we just need to be smarter in how we use them.”